Wednesday, May 14, 2008

One of the most daunting problems I have to deal with since my return to Lebanon is to no surprise, People. It's not about the way they dress, nor their system of beliefs, nor their hopes , dreams or the lack thereof.I am highly shocked , to say the least, at the failure of a lot of lebanese I met so far to communicate with each other in a proper civilized manner. The context of this problem goes beyond political or religious discussions and actually extends to everyday conversations, whether at work , home or any other gathering place.I am starting to see the same pattern repeating itself over and over. Its a general tendency to crush, intimidate, or insult the person at the other end of the communication line. After a long and painful observation period , I have come to the conclusion that this collective behaviour is nothing but a manifestation of the low-self esteem and inferiority complex that haunts most lebanese. Proving someone else to be wrong, or putting them into a corner seems to be the most favourite method of "feeling better about one's self". So they thrive to outsmart each other in every single sentence, even claim to understand something they actually know nothing about, and eventually offer to give you lessons about the subject. This obsession with the "I" thats obviously predominant in this society, is actually an indicator of a highly dysfunctional society, to the point of Paranoia....Hopefully , my stay in this psych ward will not start to affect my own mental sanity.